There’s almost nothing I’d rather do less of an evening than go to a comedy night. In general, the overwhelming badness of them – the sheer unfuniness, the cringiness of the audience failing to laugh and the humiliation of the comic is too much to bear. On top of that, I always sit there paralysed with fear of being picked on, since “audience participation” is one of my great nightmares.

But the worst thing about British comedy these days is its predictable Leftiness. Its most merciless jokes are always directed at the bogeymen it thinks (wrongly) we can all agree on: Brexiteers, Conservatives, those unsure about gay marriage or the politics of trans loos. In the eyes of Britain’s leading comics,...